Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

Butchering
 
In the fall, my Dad and John “Junior” Dunlap had a hog or calf butchered and each took half. Williamsport had a freezer locker in the same building as the “beer joint”.
 
The meat would be cut up, wrapped and stored there. We always got the cracklins’ and kept them on our cold back porch. We munched on them all winter long. My sister Betty’s favorite part of them was the pig’s tail and all of us teased her about it.
 
We also got the lard rendering in 25 or 50 pound lard cans. My mother fried the sliced jowl (hog jaws), and put it into the lard for using later. It was a good alternative for the lack of refrigeration. My mother would dip a large cooking spoon into the lard and fried meat and put it in an iron skillet to make gravy using flour, a little corn meal, salt and pepper, milk or water. It made the best gravy on earth.
 
One year we ground our own sausage in our kitchen. We also had big pork chops and another time, my Dad took a ham and had it baked at Lindsey’s Bakery in Circleville. It was returned crusty and delicious.
 
I believe, that on occasion, my Dad was asked to help with the butchering for the Red and White Grocery Store.
 
My Dad was a big man physically and was often asked to help with big jobs. He was “a man for all seasons”.
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©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck